13 Arrested In Protest Of Calif. Officer Acquittal

FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) -- A protest over the acquittal of two former
California police officers in the beating death of a homeless man turned
violent Saturday when someone assaulted a TV camerawoman, resulting in
at least 13 arrests, police said.

The protest against Monday's acquittal of two former Fullerton officers in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas drew about 200 people, police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said.

He said most of the protesters were peaceful, but some took over intersections, blocked streets and vandalized business.

Video broadcast by KCBS-TV
someone whose face was covered by a bandanna striking the camerawoman.
She fled into her news van, and her crew called 911 when a group
surrounded the vehicle, Stuart said.

The attack prompted police go declare the protest an unlawful
assembly. Officers in riot gear came to disperse the crowd, and arrested
at least 10 for not complying, Stuart said.

In addition, police
arrested the assault suspect and two others for scrawling an obscenity
and an anarchist symbol on police property.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Thomas' father thanked the demonstrators at a rally in front of the Fullerton Police Department. He said that without their protests in the summer of 2011, his son's case might not have ended up a trial at all.

"If
you were here for 2011, for the protests," Ron Thomas said, "give
yourself a hand. You are the people, you made this happen."

Kelly
Thomas, 37, died five days after a violent confrontation with six
officers in July 2011. A surveillance camera captured him screaming for
his father and begging for air as the police kneed him, jolted him with
an electric stun gun and used the blunt end to strike him around the
face and head.